Teach. Travel. Repeat.

May 29, 2014May 29, 2014

I’m Leaving the US to Fall in Love

I want to be in love again. I want it so bad that I decided to try love in another country. Wait, before you think I’m talking about a man let me stop. Teaching is my first love and I want to feel that feeling again. My true educators know that feeling I speak of. Teaching in the US can be challenging, but it has become second nature to me. Mainly, the only thing challenging (to me) in teaching is administration and politics. I’ve heard so many teachers get frustrated and echo the sentiment, “if they’d just let me teach!” I want to see if my love of teaching speaks another language. I want to see if my talent is limitless. I want to feel that camaraderie with coworkers that I use to have, you know, before the Common Core and performance based pay. Ultimately, I want to love freely.

Family and, more often, total strangers often want to know why in the world would I leave the comforts of the US to teach in the UAE. I’ve given various reasons: more money, cheap travel, and as of lately my response has just been,”why not?” All of those things play a factor into why I’d want to pack up and go, but what resounds with me the most is the yearning for “light bulb” moments.

I’m plan on doing more than teaching; I know there is going to be a whooooole lotta learning as well. There is no way to prepare for all that I will see and do so I’ve just stopped. The process can drive you crazy if you let it; I’ve made more to do lists than the law allows. For those of you reading this who are traveling also, I will list them. Hope it helps!

Hi! I have been teaching overseas in Seoul for two years and will be moving to Egypt in the fall to teach. I’ll definitely be hitting up the UAE at some point! I love teaching abroad and you will too! 🙂

You are my sister in the sense that I made the move for exactly the reasons you stated in your post. Twenty years in the teaching profession and I stopped “teaching” when Common Core came into the picture; now in AZ PARCC is on the horizon and I said enough was enough. Congratulations on your decision and I hope our paths will cross in UAE!